Dom (House, Zuzana Liová, 2011) tells the story of a family in a small Czech town. Imrich wanted to give his daughters a good start in life by building them each a house on the same land as the family home. His elder daughter Jana spoiled his plans by marrying an unsuitable man and having children too early, so he has disowned her: when the film begins, Imrich is focusing his efforts on completing a house for his younger daughter, Eva. Although Eva is forced to help him build, she is by no means enthusiastic about her father’s project. Now in her last year of high school, Eva dreams of escaping this drab, sleepy backwater to work as an au pair in London. When her father thwarts her plan for freedom, Eva finds consolation in a relationship with a shy, sensitive older man. Unfortunately, this man turns out to be married…and also turns out to be her new English teacher.

In some senses, Dom is similar to Amnistia, which I reviewed yesterday: both offer a realistic portrait of family relationships which are strained, in large part, by a difficult economic reality. In Dom every character’s life is marked by a lack of resources. Imrich has a boring job at a water bottling plant, and there is pressure on him as he builds the house, not only because nobody shares his enthusiasm, but because has to take time off work to build it. The house is progressing slower than he would like, because he can’t afford to hire people to help him: he is even having to take bricks from his elder daughter’s unfinished house, as he hasn’t the money to buy new bricks. Meanwhile, Eva takes time off school to earn money in secret delivering flyers, hoping that one day she will have enough to go to England. The mother scrimps whatever money she can to secretly help elder daughter Jana, who cannot afford to pay the rent. Jana’s husband longs to provide a good life for his family, but without the capital to start a business, he piles one problem on top of another: he steals from his mother to open a convenience store, but doesn’t insure it. Even the married English teacher leases his new car, and is moving to the town only because the land there is cheap.

Although lack of money and lack of prospects contributes in large part to the frustrations in these characters’ lives, this is first and foremost a universal story about the difficulty of family life, when parents’ best intentions clash with their children’s desire for freedom,. There is great emotional truth to this film, which makes it very touching. Imrich is an irascible and controlling force in his family, and creates great unhappiness around him with his stubbornness: he refuses to see Jana and her family, and Eva and her mother can only make stealthy visits. At the same time, the audience can sense that deep down Imrich cares about his family, and see his intolerable behaviour as an expression of frustration at being unable to protect his daughters from life. He worries that if Eva were to go to London, she would be ‘just another Eastern European’. Miroslav Krobot does an excellent job as Imrich, creating a façade as rough as the walls of the house he is building: it is a challenge, because he must show the feeling that lies beneath, without ever allowing the façade to crumble entirely. Judit Bardos, too, does a remarkable job in her first feature film role: she displays Eva’s mix of vulnerability and rebelliousness with great subtlety, never exaggerating either characteristic.

Although the script and characterisation are powerful, the film’s pacing and visual aspects are not as strong. The character relationships in Dom provide dramatic interest, yet the film still seems to drag: the timing of each shot needs to be judged with greater precision. The film’s slowness is exacerbated by its bleak aesthetic. To be fair, if a director is portraying a world of modest means, the audience can’t expect opulent interiors. Similarly, the fact that the film is set in winter justifies the gloomy days to some degree. Still, some of Llova’s shots are beautifully composed, so the director is clearly capable of setting up an image that is engaging even if its content is depressing. The film’s final few minutes are suddenly illuminated by the sunlight which has been almost entirely absent for the rest of the film: it is asking a bit much of the audience to sit through such a long succession of gloomy days. Maybe it is to suggest that Eva would be well prepared to live out her dream of a life in London…